Ok, enough drivel, what follows is a look at the SMART and not so SMART aspects of our FSTA draft.

SMART – Grabbing young under 30 hard throwing national league pitchers to form the majority of our starting staff. With Adam Wainwright, Jordan Zimmerman, Jeff Samardzija and Lance Lynn atop our rotation, the strikeouts should be plentiful.

SMART – Rostering one of the most reliable closers in the big leagues Joe Nathan in round 11 (who should only get better moving from Texas to Detroit) and supplementing with Jonathan Papelbon and Rex Brothers means we more than satisfied the R in SMART that stands for relievers. [Note: for those predicting doom for Pap because of some reduced velo, take note that his k/bb ratio, FIP and BABIP all remained constant from 2012-2013 – years in which he tallied 67 saves and 10 wins. The rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated]

SMART – Staying awake and managing carefully. Many sites have Chris “Crush” Davis as a top 5-7 pick. When it came time for team CTW to choose at 20, Davis was still there. We pounced. Even if Davis suffers a 40% reduction in dingers, he will smack over 30 for us. Score!

Not so SMART – we did not pay enough attention to the scarce positions. Our non-Davis infield of Brandon Phillips, Asdrubal Cabrera and Martin Prado will not alarm anyone (get it?). Those are good players but since we did not grab a Cano, Beltre, Pedroia type, we had to draft those three infielders earlier than their pure stats and projections would warrant.

SMART – getting upside late. Not only did we get potential 30/30 guy BJ Upton in the 16th round, we corralled hard throwing youngsters Carlos Martinez and Garrett Richards in rounds 25 and 27 respectively. With average FB velocities of 96.7 and 94.8 we got great upside very late. The rules of engagement say grab hard throwers and grab upside late. Richards and Carlos Martinez could skyrocket faster than the number of Richard Sherman’s twitter followers if things shake out just right.

Ok, now on to preparing for the labr AL and NL drafts where the talent pool goes MUCH deeper. Stay tuned as team CTW will be providing strategy updates and player evaluations all winter right here at the home of fantasy sports title winners – Fantasy Alarm!